Two Swimmers Making Things
by Pokkit
Summary: Inspired by the "Two Monks Inventing Things" posts on The Toast, this is a series of drabbles featuring pairs (not necessarily romantic ones) of characters from Free! making things, and the discussions they have in the process.


_Author's Note: If you haven't seen them before, check out the Two Monks Inventing Things posts on The Toast here: /tag/two-monks-inventing-things/ These drabbles are inspired by, but not intended to be direct copies of, that series. Also, for some reason I have again started with baking, but don't worry, I will not write every fic about baking :) Depending on how well this is received, and how many ideas I get, I'll continue this now and then._

"Ok, Haru, what do I do first?"

"First, you read the recipe and make sure you have everything you need," Haru said, rounding the corner into the kitchen.

"I know that!" Rin snapped. "I already did that! I mean there are things you have to combine before you combine them with other things. Does it matter what order I do that in? I don't want things to sit out too long."

"It'll be fine," replied Haru. He knew that Rin didn't know his way around the kitchen at ALL. And he also knew that he was really adamant about baking a cake for his mother's 50th birthday. But he needed help, even though Haru thought he should've been able to just read and follow the instructions written in the recipe. Haru looked at what Rin had spread out all over their counter. "First, you need a bigger mixing bowl. Here." He leaned down and pulled their largest mixing bowl out of the cabinet under the counter.

"Oh. Thanks."

"No problem. Now that bowl you had out before, put all the dry ingredients in that one."

"So," Rin hesitated, "all the powdery things, right?"

"Right. No, not the sugar. There." Haru reminded himself to be careful about his word choices. First-time bakers don't always realize that sugar isn't a "dry" ingredient.

"Isn't this a lot of flour?" Rin questioned. "It seems like a lot of flour."

"You're baking a whole cake."

"Right. O-of course." Rin reminded himself to just follow the instructions, and trust Haru to stop him if the recipe was wrong or if he misunderstood something.

With the dry ingredients mixed together, they turned to the larger bowl. "Now," Haru said patiently, "put the butter and sugar in here. Ok good. Now take the hand mixer over there, I put the right beaters in it, don't worry, and cream the butter and sugar together."

Rin gave him a blank look. "Um, when you say 'cream' like that, you mean…?"

"Beat them until they mix and get kind of fluffy."

"Right. Okay." Running the hand-mixer, Rin started to think he could get the hang of this baking thing. But when it came to adding the dry ingredients and the milk in alternating stages, things got dicey again. "Haru," he started, embarrassed to still need help, "how do I know how much to put in at a time?"

"Just until it looks right."

"But what does 'right' look like?"

Haru sighed. "Let me see. No, a little more. Ok. Stop, stop, stop! That might've been a little too much."

"What do I do?"

"Just start adding the milk. Slowly. Ok, stop. Well, a little more. Ok good."

Rin brushed a lock of hair out of his eyes with the back of his wrist. This should not be so stressful. "Ok, back to the flour. Tell me before I put too much in this time!"

"I will."

Without further incident, Rin managed (with Haru's continued guidance), to get the batter done and poured into cake pans. While they waited for the oven to pre-heat, Haru gave more instructions.

"Now, to make sure you don't have a lot of air bubbles in the cake, hit the bottom of the pan against the counter a couple of times."

"What, like this?" Rin picked up the pan and slammed it against the counter. A large air bubble in the batter surfaced all at once and created a small geyser of cake batter, splattering both boys.

"Yeah," Haru said flatly. "Pretty much just like that."

Rin looked sheepish and handed Haru a dishcloth. "Sorry."

"Can you do me a favor?" asked Haru.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Let me handle the icing."


End file.
